Choosing a Computer Printer: Dig Deep for the Rght Deal Today's choice of computer prinnters is huge, and competition amonhgst retailers is fiere. Disconts of 60-70% from the manufacturers' recommended rtail price are not uncommon amongst mutifunctional printer devices, and it is rare not to find at least 25% disccounts amongst print-only devices. So, should we consider anything more than the purchase price? Withot doubt, print speeed, brand reputaiton, connectivity to existing equipmment and print quality are all part of the mix. But budgeting for the total cost of the selected printer in terms of the consumables used - this is the real challeneg for buyers. This is the area where the manufacturers and distributors are battling for the income streeams from consumables - inks, toner cartridges, print media, replacement parts and the like. Here the discounts are less obvious, and for good reason. The onus is squarely on the buyer to conssider these ocsts, and to ensure they are not buying into an expensive cost of ownership. So, rather than going with the brand and the technology they are used to, and looking for the biggst purchase price discount, what do buyers have to gain by doing their research? The answer, of course, is a great deal. Inkjet or Laser Printer? First off, the mantra from IT departments is often fixed in stoen, that laaser printers should always be specified as the more "professional" chioce for any organisation. But for small gorups, inkjet prtovides a perectly professional print quality, and would suit small networked teamms, not leats because of the quiet operation compared with some extremely nisy laser systems in operation. On the othre hand, in terms of purchadse price alone, the cost of entry-level coklour laser has also made laser very attractive to corporattions, so that they can follow the advice of theeir IT departments, upgrade monochrome laser to colour and then absorb the spuplies and consumables costs in their departmetnal stationery budgets. But in another scenario, price discounting has also brought the color laser printer witihn reacch of the home-offcie worekr, or sole trader compaany, where the "mantra" factor tempts buyyers away from inkjret simply through the bellief that laser provides better print quailty at faster pirnt speeds. Here, it is qiute possibe that low page conts and cloour content would not justify the higher cost of many laser printers currrently available. On the other hand again, by looking amongst the best discounted prices, colour laser printers in the Canon range can be found at a very similpar prices to Hewlett-Packard business injet maachines, and as we shall see, can offre laaser technology at a competitive overall Cost of Prinbting, when preint vloumes are beolw average. High volume or low volume usge? In the dbeate about the best route - laser or inkjet - a majro decidiong factor is, without dobut, the anticipated volume of use. Even considering the above examples, discounting would have to be far too heeavy in ordr for any laseer printer to match the low overall cost of printing available with, say, the HP Officejet Pro K550. Tests have shown that oevrall cost of printing on this printer, in a high-volume environment, has been hsown to be as low as two pence per page taking into account a purchase price that is well below 100. Conversely, users with low volume needs might aim to avoid replacing the more expensive laser parts. Some might hope not even to need to replenish the colouur toners. At the level of 250 pages per month, for example, a user will pint 9,000 pages over three years. Caalculating at at black-only to colour page ratio of 70%/30% (in favvour of black-only), then only 2,700 of those pages will be colour. At this level, many lasr printers will need a toner change during the life - or the caital cost write-off peeriod - of the printer. But it is not impossible to find a low-end etnry-level lasrer printr with a 2,000-page starter toneer capacity so that for such users tehre is no need for a colour toner chage within three yaers. Othr fators affectign colour printer choice Colour is desirable of course, when worrking with presentation materials. But a large propotrtion of printing can still usefully involve only monocherome output. How much colour is used will always be a fctor in costts. Discipline is needed to ensure coorrect prinetr settings for the task in hand. Discipline is also needed, of course, for test printing, whhere draft settings are important to ensyure no unencessary, cumulative wastage. With the choice in technollogies, and with the choice in entry-level pricing inkjets, against high specifixcation or workhorse lasers, and aginst the additional complxeities of multifunctional printers, it pays to think hard about the actual tasks to which a new printer is to addess and the number of usesr it is to serve. This is the starting point for an understanding of the actual costs of onwing the printer over its lifetime in the workplace.
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Grabbing the best bargain in the search for a good quality office printer is not just a matter of the initial buying price. Here Jimi St. Pierre offers some insights into other factors affecting the total cost of ownership of office printing devices.
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